Author: David L. Cope, Manager, Technical Programs, Engineered Solutions Americas, Kennametal Inc.
Date: 5/7/2013
Faced with a need for increased productivity, a major manufacturer of oil & gas equipment turned to an innovator who could help move the metal.
Full Article Author: Brent Godfrey, Industry and Applications Specialist, Sandvik Coromant
Date: 5/6/2013
Tool dampening has evolved to become a means of boosting productivity in the oil & gas industry
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor James D. Sawyer
Date: 5/6/2013
Mixing the old and the new, the tried and the true, a small-town Texas foundry has learned how to deal with the ups and downs that come with living inthe Oil Patch.
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Author: Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak
Date: 3/11/2013
Stocks surging to record levels. GM and Ford market shares on the rise. And last week, deep in the heart of Texas oil country, the vibrant US manufacturing industry showcased its wares for the oil, gas and energy industry at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ (SME) Houstex 2013 show in Houston, TX.
Full Article Author: Raymond C. Floyd
Date: 2/1/2013
When adapting lean to a different area of manufacturing, take care that nothing is lost in the translation.
Full Article Author: Energy Information Administration
Date: 2/1/2013
Only in the past five years has shale gas been recognized as a game changer for the US natural gas market.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 2/1/2013
Extracting oil and gas in the deep ocean requires heavy-duty expertise. But the tight skilled labor market is forcing more efficient use of capital equipment through single setup and automation
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 1/22/2013
The world is witnessing the dawn of a new era in energy production. And manufacturers—who innovate, engineer and supply the tools needed to extract, capture, generate, store and transport that energy—are at the forefront.
Full Article Author: Carmex President Jeff Dei
Date: 1/10/2013
At the heart of the recovery system are the pumping units capable of generating the extraordinary pressures and, at the same time, withstanding the flow of the abrasive-laden pumping fluid. No element of the pump is more critical than the threaded ports that connect the unit to the high-pressure lines. Connections are typically machined from the same alloy as the pump and, given the pressures involved, the fit must be perfect, both to ensure efficient operation and to facilitate connect and disconnect operation. Depending on the design, typical pumps are produced with three to five threaded holes per block.
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 1/3/2013
The renewable energy industry kicked off the New Year with celebration after Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 in the first days of 2013. The law averted a tumble over a fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and also extended the popular tax credits that had been set to expire. The federal renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC) is a per-kilowatt-hour tax credit for electricity generated by qualified energy resources. While wind and ethanol producers are the big winners in the move, the PTC also covers other sources of power generation such as specific types of landfill gas, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal electric, municipal solid waste and others.
Full Article Author: NAM Chief Economist Chad Moutray
Date: 1/1/2013
Amidst all of the conversation about the fiscal cliff, slowing global growth and other economic anxieties, it is easy to overlook that the long-term prognosis for the manufacturing sector remains strong. Some of 2012’s economic bright spots should continue into 2013, and manufacturers will benefit.
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 1/1/2013
The toolholding industry is launching new systems for gripping, clamping and locking, as well as deadening vibrations. It's also expanding its toolholder lineup, going ever bigger for applications in the energy, machinery and heavy-duty transportation markets and ever smaller for medical and aerospace parts.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor James D. Sawyer
Date: 12/12/2012
The Pittsburgh region is once again a hotbed of energy production and manufacturing -- thanks to the Marcellus Shale and fracking.
Full Article Author: Mate Precision Tooling
Date: 10/17/2012
Rapidset adjustable thick-turret cannisters are designed for use with Mate original style and AMX punch press tooling and are compatible with Amada standard, Amada ABS, and Wilson standard tooling styles.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor James Sawyer
Date: 8/17/2012
There is an old saying: "Better, cheaper, faster. Pick any two." That does not cut it in today’s manufacturing environment. In a globally competitive world, manufacturers who wish to survive will achieve all three goals—all the time. This is true even when the component being machined is something as complex as the hub for a wind turbine.
Full Article Author: Olivier Guillermin, PhD, Director of Product and Market Strategy, Siemens PLM Inc.
Date: 7/19/2012
Building lighter, more durable and better quality wind blades presents a unique and complex challenge that involves significant risks. New concepts, materials and processes must be found to meet the many requirements for everything from functional and structural design to production.
Full Article Author: Michael Schratz, Director of Marketing, Dialight
Date: 7/19/2012
Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technology has proven to be the most efficient lighting solution on the market, delivering immediate and quantifiable results from day one.
Full Article Author: Danny Shacham, Chief Technical Officer, Nextec Laser Metrology
Date: 6/1/2012
Quality is a given today—no company can afford to find defects at the end of its line where parts end up as scrap or having to be reprocessed. However, operating successfully in a global economy requires delivering quality while controlling costs and boosting productivity.
Full Article Author: Tony Danova and Lindsay Holloway, IBISWorld
Date: 6/1/2012
For quite some time, alternative-energy technology has been the leading topic of conversation. As the planet grows increasingly warmer, discussions and implementation of alternative energies also heat up. Major concerns over climate change and energy security have effectively thrust renewable energy into the limelight politically and socially.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Joyce Laird
Date: 6/1/2012
There is no single technology when it comes to biomass energy generation. There are closed-loop, open-loop, biodigester, thermal digester and cogeneration processes. There are waste-to-energy (WTE) and landfill gas energy (LGE) technologies. All process a feedstock in a specific way to generate energy or combined heat/energy output.
Full Article Author: Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy
Date: 6/1/2012
The use of horizontal drilling in conjunction with hydraulic fracturing has greatly expanded the ability of producers to profitably recover natural gas and oil from low-permeability geologic plays—particularly, shale plays.
Full Article Author: Edited by Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 5/1/2012
Repetitive multiaxis manufacturing of complex parts poses a special challenge to CAM software manufacturers. Examples include Swiss-machined medical components, cylinder-head ports, and multiblade parts used widely in aerospace, energy conversion, and other fluid movement applications. When considering the possible alternative approaches, Mastercam’s multidiscipline teams at CNC Software Inc. (Tolland, CT) came to the conclusion that the CAM software should be simple yet highly intelligent.
Full Article Author: Dan Seif, Senior Consultant at Rocky Mountain Institute
Date: 4/1/2012
Total U.S. solar jobs surpassed 100,000 last August, up from 93,000 a year earlier. In addition, GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industry Association recently announced 109 percent year-over-year growth in installed U.S. solar capacity.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 3/1/2012
When Rob Simmons, owner of Machine Specialties Inc. (MSI; Whitsett, NC), listened to a seminar speaker in 2005 discussing the looming economic downturn, he raised his hand to comment. "I’m not going to participate in that," he stated. And he didn’t.
Full Article Author: SME Director of Membership Joseph J. LaRussa
Date: 3/1/2012
Growth is many things. It’s a business objective, a sign of health, a personal goal, and a measure of satisfaction. SME and its members consider growth to be all of these, and together we’re achieving it. Considering growth as a business objective, SME membership grew by 4% in 2011. More than 6700 new members joined the Society in 2011, demonstrating that our value promise to our members is strong and compelling. Full Article
Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 2/1/2012
While the overall economy might still be on shaky ground, the oil patch has recovered remarkably in just the last two years. There are over 2500 rotary rigs now active in North America compared to under 1000 in December 2009, according to the December 2011 Baker Hughes Rig Count report, a barometer of the drilling industry.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2012
Oil prices are widely expected to remain above $100 a barrel throughout the year, making the pursuit of aggressive domestic drilling economically sensible. There’s enough drilling activity to ensure that shops will have a ready market for their machining capacity for oil field goods. The increased activity is offering business opportunities for machine shops located nearby and for machine builders and distributors and their third-party suppliers of tooling and workholding.
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Date: 2/1/2012
The next waste under attack in lean manufacturing is energy. It’s not just because “being green” is in vogue for marketers, either. The very premise of lean manufacturing is about eliminating waste, and unnecessary energy use is the epitome of waste.
Full Article Author: Don Lane, President and CEO, Makino Inc.
Date: 2/1/2012
According to the headlines and recent stock market performance, overall economic conditions remain unsteady. However, the machine tool industry is experiencing a recovery from the recession that has been quicker, stronger and more robust than any other in history.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Joyce Laird
Date: 2/1/2012
Is your company ready for ISO 50001, which gives organizations the requirements for energy management systems, and the new energy era?
Full Article Author: Editor Brian J. Hogan
Date: 7/1/2010
Metalcutting fluids are ubiquitous in machining, and almost every manufacturing professional has seen advertisements for "green" metalcutting fluids. Suppliers to manufacturers insist that environmentally responsible coolants and lubricants can function just as well as conventional products, without requiring extensive modification of the equipment now operating on your shop floor. But just what is a "green" coolant?
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 2/1/2010
Small lots and challenging tolerances test companies working in this demanding field
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2010
Machining systems can meet every need, if proper attention is given to process design and machine capabilities.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Patrick Waurzyniak
Date: 1/1/2010
Aerospace, heavy equipment, and wind-energy components require large-scale, high-precision metrology gear.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2009
It isn't exactly as if somebody pulled the plug on demand for oil, but what a difference a year can make. Last year at this time the price of oil was flirting with $100/barrel, on its way to record levels of $140/barrel. Then, unexpectedly, the bottom dropped out as the world endured a major meltdown in financial markets that has left no national economy unaffected.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor Bruce Morey
Date: 2/1/2009
The world's appetite for oil and gas is expected to grow over the long haul, even if there are moments such as the present when demand declines. Technology expands energy supplies. Can manufacturing deliver that technology?
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 2/1/2009
Once the present financial problems start to settle down, one of the opportunities for the manufacturing community waiting in the wings is the growing "energy industry." Manufacturers may benefit in two ways.
Full Article Author: Contributing Editor James R. Koelsch
Date: 9/1/2008
Waste not on your machine, want not on your bottom line
Full Article Author: Senior Editor James Koelsch
Date: 8/1/2008
Innovations generate efficiency and cut operating costs
Full Article Author: Editor Brian J. Hogan
Date: 6/1/2008
Billed as the World's Largest Oil and Gas Event, the Global Petroleum Show 2008 offers a view of tomorrow's technology
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 2/1/2008
The US "oil patch," which has been in decline for several years, is now booming, and there is a frantic search for more petroleum and ways to recover it. There are three main sources of additional oil: find new reserves, use advanced technology to get oil from old fields, and drill deep-water wells. The deep-sea wells, those bringing up oil from more than 10,000' (3048 m) are the most promising source.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2008
Partsmakers and machine tool builders alike are being challenged to provide the advanced technology and equipment required by the oil companies and their energy service suppliers to seek for, find, and successfully recover oil and gas resources needed to fuel the world's economies. The oil companies have to drill farther afield and deeper in the earth and in deep water in their explorations.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2008
The need to find replacement supplies of oil and gas to match the global thirst for energy will spur a double-digit rise in capital spending plans of the oil companies for the next couple of years. With the economies of China and India continuing their growth as the next big consumers of oil, the longer term outlook is similarly positive—at least on the demand side.
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Robert B. Aronson
Date: 3/1/2007
The headaches of holemaking
Full Article Author: Senior Editor Jim Lorincz
Date: 2/1/2007
You don't have to be an expert in international affairs or even the global energy industry to know that there are powerful forces at work pressuring every facet of the efforts now underway to find, develop, and produce energy resources. Every day, news headlines trumpet the global dependence of the industrialized world on imported oil from some of the most troubled and troublesome parts of the world.
Full Article Author: Editor in Chief Sarah A. Webster
Fusion isn’t just a delight to your palette or ears when it mixes food or sounds together in creative new ways. It’s also good for business. Fusion, where distinct elements meet, can also result in the cross-pollination of ideas, mixing up a potential cocktail of innovation. That’s the idea behind MFG4, to be held from May 8–10 in Hartford, CT.
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